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Unionists at the Ministry of Culture have not yet met the Minister Pavlos Geroulanos to present their demands and argue that there is no apparent interest in dialogue on political level. They themselves say they will continue the strike till October 31 - the last working day of 350 colleagues the contracts of which expire then. "It's not about contracts termination – actually we are talking about redundancies. When 350 people have been working so many years and at the end of the month they will be out of work – it is no time when you will find work elsewhere. Those 350 people we need will get out on the street unable to take care of their families. And it is tragedy to dismiss several hundreds people from the Ministry of Culture when you have 1 million unemployed in Greece."

The chairman of the union of temporary employees at the Ministry of Culture Nikos Hasomeris says there are "4,500 vacant jobs provided for permanent staff at the Ministry. Instead of appointing people permanently on these positions they hire temporarily employees to work, then sack them and employ others and fire them again and so ad infinitum. We want our colleagues who have at least ten years of work experience and cover areas that are necessary to remain at work, and to take some of these 4 500 positions. They are archaeologists, restorers, guards, night guards, receptionists, cleaners, workers, technicians, but the political leadership does not want to meet us."

"Can a person live under today's conditions even a month without money?! Those who were not paid 22 months are living with loans from relatives and friends, bank credits, or if they find some temporary work at a pace - they work as suppliers, waiters in cafes. There are people who live in rent, others have children, and there are people who come every day to protest but walking to save even the one euro for the ticket. So, we can not justify why we do strikes and occupations," says Nikos Hasomeris shortly before the announcement of the meeting point on October 28 - National Day of Greece, when archaeologists will continue their protest in front of the Acropolis at 10:30 am.

Strike in foreign eyes

While strikers protested outside the Ministry of Culture, the National Archaeological Museum opened its doors after 12 o’clock at noon to meet the first visitors for the day. "I'd be very disappointed if I’d come to see the museum closed. I visited Greece in 2004 before the Olympics when it was repaired and closed to visitors. And if it happened again, I would be low. But it is open! Otherwise, we are accustomed to strikes in France; this is our way of life. Now we are worried about how we will get home and whether the airport will be closed," says a tourist from France that came with her family to see one of the temples that keep the pride of Greece.